Mealey's Pollution Liability
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October 01, 2024
Certification For Appeal Of Interim Attorney Fees Denied In Clean Water Act Case
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California in a docket entry denied a request by two cities for reconsideration of interim attorney fees and for certification of the fee order as final but stayed until October enforcement of the order that granted fees to an environmental organization that sued the cities under the Clean Water Act (CWA) for discharging bacteria pollution from stormwater sewer systems.
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September 25, 2024
Norfolk Southern: Investors Attempt To ‘Concoct’ Securities Case From Train Crash
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern Corp. and its principals filed a reply brief in Georgia federal court arguing that it should dismiss a securities fraud class action filed against them related to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on grounds that the plaintiffs “attempt to concoct securities fraud claims” out of the crash and the stock price declines that followed it.
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September 24, 2024
California, Environmental Groups Sue Exxon For Single-Use Plastics Pollution
SAN FRANCISCO — The California Attorney General’s Office and environmental groups on Sept. 23 separately filed complaints against Exxon Mobil Corp., accusing it of creating a public nuisance and violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by manufacturing single-use plastics that it misrepresented as recyclable while earning billions dollars from sales of plastic products per year.
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September 23, 2024
River Protection Group Sues For CWA Violations At Wastewater Treatment Plants
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A nonprofit corporation that works to protect the Chattahoochee River and its tributaries and watershed, including Walter F. George Lake, has filed a civil action against a city in Alabama, alleging that the city’s wastewater treatment plant continually violates the Clean Water Act (CWA) by discharging of various pollutants into the river.
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September 23, 2024
EPA, Minnesota Company Reach Settlement Over Clean Air Act Violations
CHICAGO — Federal Cartridge Co., a Minnesota company that melts and processes lead to manufacture ammunition, has agreed to pay $349,471 in penalties and reduce air emissions by more than 1,700 pounds of particulate matter per year and more than 400 pounds of lead per year in a settlement reached with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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September 20, 2024
9th Circuit: Permit Issued After Faulty Fireworks Show Extinguishes CWA Case
PASADENA, Calif. — A restaurant accused of allowing a “low break” firework to fall into the Alamitos Bay during a Fourth of July celebration received a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for future events, which a divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found mooted an appeal filed by a environmental group alleging violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA).
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September 18, 2024
California Federal Judge Rejects Motion For New Trial In Clean Water Act Dispute
SANTA ANA , Calif. — A California federal judge held that while a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision “changed the prevailing law regarding what constitutes ” a water of the United States (WOTUS), the ruling does not warrant a new trial for a recycling company that was found to have violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) 12,541 times.
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September 18, 2024
EPA Tells U.S. Supreme Court Petitioner’s CWA Permit Argument Is Without Merit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed a response brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in a dispute over narrative prohibitions in San Francisco’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) sewer system permit, contending that San Francisco’s categorical argument that the Clean Water Act (CWA) authorizes only limitations that fall within the statutory definition of “effluent limitation” are without merit.
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September 18, 2024
Court: Commitment To Monitor Nitrogen Pollution Not ‘Rule’ Under Washington Law
OLYMPIA, Wash. — A commitment from the Washington Department of Ecology in a denial letter to an environmental group to monitor sources of human-introduced nitrogen in Puget Sound is not a “rule” under the Washington Administrative Procedure Act (APA), an en banc Washington Supreme Court found, reversing an appellate court.
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September 16, 2024
Group Appeals Dismissal Of CWA Violation Suit Against Buddhist Compound
NEW YORK — An environmental group on Sept. 13 notified a New York federal court that it is appealing to the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals the dismissal of its case accusing Dragon Springs Buddhist Inc. of polluting the water around its 393-acre compound.
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September 12, 2024
EPA, California: High Court Intervention Not Needed In Emissions Standards Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a group of states led by California urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject petitions for a writ of certiorari to decide whether the EPA has the authority to waive new Clean Air Act (CAA) standards for automobile emissions as they apply to California.
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September 05, 2024
Idaho Federal Judge: U.S. Failed To Allege Polluted Wetlands Are Protected By CWA
BOISE, Idaho — The United States failed to properly assert that the operator of a ranch in Idaho violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) because it did not raise factual allegations stating that the wetlands allegedly polluted by the company are connected to waters protected by the law, an Idaho federal judge found in granting the operator’s motion to dismiss without prejudice.
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September 03, 2024
Discovery Issues Derail Summary Judgment Bid In Cleanup Costs Coverage Row
PADUCAH, Ky. — After a report of discovery issues prompted denial of a summary judgment motion without prejudice in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs, a Kentucky federal magistrate judge has set new discovery deadlines and given the plaintiff leave to move to compel production.
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August 30, 2024
9th Circuit Affirms Man’s Clean Water Act Conviction For Dumping Caustic Water
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal jury properly convicted a man of violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) because there was sufficient evidence to show that he operated a company that discharged caustic wastewater into a public sewer and the United States did not suppress evidence or improperly vouch for a witness, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming the jury’s verdict.
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August 28, 2024
9th Circuit Says CERCLA Does Not Limit FTCA’s Misrepresentation Exception
SAN FRANCISCO — The United States is entitled to sovereign immunity from claims brought by employees of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) who allegedly were harmed by radioactive contamination at a former U.S. Navy base that was leased to the SFPD because the claims were based on misrepresentations made by the Navy and are therefore exempt under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming a trial court’s order and rejecting the employees’ assertion that the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) limited the exemption at issue.
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August 27, 2024
Investors: Norfolk Southern Broke Securities Laws Related To Ohio Train Derailment
ATLANTA — Investors have filed a brief in Georgia federal court opposing a motion to dismiss their securities fraud class action against Norfolk Southern Corp. and its principals, arguing that they have laid out in “exacting detail” that the defendants misled investors about the purported safety of the railroad’s operations while the company implemented cost-cutting procedures that “systematically dismantled critical safety measures in pursuit of profits, culminating in the derailment” of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, which resulted in toxic chemical pollution in that town.
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August 27, 2024
Permit Claims Against Power Plant Operator Survive In Illinois Federal Court
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An Illinois federal magistrate judge declined to dismiss claims asserting that the operator of a coal-fired power plant failed to obtain a mandatory permit for its operations because the operator failed to show that it complied with Illinois’ permitting program simply by applying for the applicable permits that state agencies failed to act upon.
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August 26, 2024
Federal Judge Enjoins EPA For Imposing Environmental Disparate Impact Requirements
LAKE CHARLES, La. — In a final judgment, a Louisiana federal judge permanently enjoined the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice from imposing disparate impact and cumulative requirements against Louisiana and its state environmental agency.
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August 22, 2024
EPA Urges High Court Not To Stay Coal-Fired Power Plant Emissions Rule
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to an emergency application for an immediate stay filed by 25 states, the EPA argues that the U.S. Supreme Court should not stay a rule that would impose new emissions standards on coal-fired power plants under the authority of the Clean Air Act (CAA) because the states failed to show they are likely to succeed on the merits in the pending judicial review case regarding the rule.
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August 21, 2024
Tennessee City Will Repair Sewer System To Resolve Alleged CWA Violations
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge entered a consent decree that requires a Tennessee city to perform several construction projects on its allegedly faulty sewer system in exchange for resolution of Clean Water Act (CWA) claims brought against it by an environmental group.
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August 21, 2024
D.C. Circuit: EPA’s Decision And Method Regarding Chemical Emissions Were Proper
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Agency did not act arbitrarily or capriciously by enacting a final rule that tightened emissions from organic chemical manufacturing sites because the agency properly explained the statistical model it relied upon when reaching its decision and why it rejected other models, a District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in denying three petitions for judicial review.
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August 20, 2024
Contamination, Exposure Coverage Suit Transferred From New York To Maryland
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Aug. 19 transferred an insurer’s suit seeking a coverage declaration for a number of toxic exposure and environmental contamination lawsuits filed against its insured to Maryland federal court, where the insured filed an identical lawsuit against the insurer, because the insured met its burden of showing that Maryland is the more convenient venue for the parties and witnesses.
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August 20, 2024
Residents Allegedly Harmed By Creosote Get Preliminary Approval Of $3.5M Settlement
LAKE CHARLES, La. — A Louisiana federal judge granted preliminary approval of a proposed class settlement that would see two petroleum companies place $3.5 million in a litigation fund to resolve claims alleging that they contributed to creosote contamination at a property that spread to the groundwater of neighboring areas.
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August 19, 2024
New York Federal Judge Enters $4M Default Judgment In Park Contamination Dispute
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — In adopting a report and recommendation, a New York federal judge entered default judgment in favor of New York and its environmental agency for Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act claims brought against 13 defendants who failed to respond to allegations that they dumped hazardous waste at a public park in Suffolk County, N.Y.
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August 15, 2024
Insurer Says Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage, Exception Does Not Apply
SAN FRANCISCO — An insurer reiterates in an appellant reply brief filed in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a district court erred in finding that a pollution exclusion does not bar coverage for an underlying environmental contamination lawsuit because the underlying lawsuit fails to allege that there was any sudden and accidental pollution.